Panasonic GH4 4K Production Diary - Day 2 - Test Footage

[sudopera]

I think this 4K to 2K workflow is great for final result. I have made a quick Porsche grade with filmconvert, 2K ProRes 444 in and out and uploaded like that to YouTube. I can only say that even with my mediocre grading skills, I am astonished what image you can get from this little camera.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTHnn0HXeG4

 

Thanks Andrew for your great work!

[Butch]

Just did a quick grade on the Andy clip in FCPX.  Then decided to try B&W. 

 

[Tim Naylor]

What is that image stabilizer that you're using, the one that looks like a small glide cam post?

[jonpais]

Ok, so that's strange. I just downloaded all 5 of Andrew's sample 4k clips. Dropped them on a 4k-24p FCPX timeline complete with audio. Dropped in random transitions, applied some style effects to a couple, added an animated title, dropped an adjustment layer and applied a LUT to the whole thing, then output as 4k 24p. 

 

What's strange is, my basic system actually handled it snappier and more responsive than my D5300 1080P source. It even played back the output 4k clip smoother as well. How can that be? Looked great too!

 

I'm only using a Macbook Pro 13in (non-retina) 16GB RAM and Andrew's media was read off a 7200rpm Thunderbolt mobile drive. 

 

Unless I'm missing something... or maybe the proresLT footage was the key and it'd take me loads of time to convert the source? If that's not the case, and this is pretty much how it'd work with minimal conversion time... then I'd say I'm sold.

ProRes LT is going to be very easy on your system. Beats spending $3,000 for an upgrade. :)

[pchristoph]

Thanks for the quick grade Butch. I'm seeing the same magenta/green issues as prior GH camera line. A bit disappointing really. DR also looks to be 10-11 stops at best. Seems Panasonic are going to fiercely protect the pro line with their Varicams and ensure they don't make the same mistake as they did with the introduction of the AF100 when the GH2 was released. 

Just did a quick grade on the Andy clip in FCPX.  Then decided to try B&W. 

 

[skiphunt]

ProRes LT is going to be very easy on your system. Beats spending $3,000 for an upgrade. :)

So, does that mean that I should be converting my Nikon D5300 source to ProRes LT? Really great news. I've been planning on holding out for the GH4 for awhile, but when it was announced it was going to be 4k, I was groaning a bit that my current mobile system wouldn't handle it. 

 

Based on the little bit I did today, I think I'd get by just fine. Add a fast RAID array, and I don't think I'll need a new system right away. :)

[Andrew Reid]

Thanks for the quick grade Butch. I'm seeing the same magenta/green issues as prior GH camera line. A bit disappointing really. DR also looks to be 10-11 stops at best. Seems Panasonic are going to fiercely protect the pro line with their Varicams and ensure they don't make the same mistake as they did with the introduction of the AF100 when the GH2 was released. 

 

Magenta or green?... can't be both tints at same time!

 

I am not seeing what you're seeing in the files to be honest. How is this image 'a bit disappointing' for $1699. Have you not been taking your happy pills or something!?

[StuS]

Some goregeous footage here, but am I the only one seeing some pretty noticeable blocking on the museum dome at around 1:11?   What might this be attributable to?

[Astro]

Thanks for the quick grade Butch. I'm seeing the same magenta/green issues as prior GH camera line. A bit disappointing really. DR also looks to be 10-11 stops at best. Seems Panasonic are going to fiercely protect the pro line with their Varicams and ensure they don't make the same mistake as they did with the introduction of the AF100 when the GH2 was released. 

I just had a good look at this and I also had a good look at the 4K Nick Driftwood short film at Brighton showing skin tones...I did not see any green tinting or magenta or artefacts or moire.

I also own a GH2 and I am a professional 3d artist for the last ten years...and before that an airbrush mural artist (what would I know?)

I only mix colors daily for 2d textures on 3d models, define realistic ray trace or hi res shadow map shadows with 3d lights, set sub surface scattering for realistic skin etc...etc...

I cant see it!!...especially in the Driftwood vid, if you cant make a good image or film with this camera...then you probably cant make a good image or film with whatever else is out there either.

[pchristoph]

I thought I'd investigate my own setup and recalibrated my monitor. Took a couple hours but it's perfect now. You're right. No magenta or blue hue in the ungraded still, and no green tones on skin in the graded image from Butch. None. The GH4 has no color issues from what I'm seeing and it looks like it might even have more dynamic range than I originally thought too. Haven't seen Nick Driftwoods footage but I will take a look. He's done so much for the GH user community and I really appreciate his work especially on the gh2 frontier. He's made some incredible settings that I've found myself using often to achieve great results.
Andrew, I agree, the GH4 is a superb value camera for what we are getting and I'm excited to see what people will create from this camera.

Magenta or green?... can't be both tints at same time!
 
I am not seeing what you're seeing in the files to be honest. How is this image 'a bit disappointing' for $1699. Have you not been taking your happy pills or something!?

[johnnymossville]

Nice Grade Butch!   I pushed mine just slightly more red in homage to the canon people.  :)

[Butch]

Nice Grade Butch!   I pushed mine just slightly more red in homage to the canon people.   :)

 

Thanks!  I was seriously shocked to see how much I was able to tweak things before there was noticeable issues.  Hopefully this gives people a small idea of what you can achieve color-wise with the camera and some elbow grease.

 

Here's a close up on the graded shot.  Keep in mind I put a film grain on it in FCPX because I almost always do on my projects. Forgive me.

 

[jhearn]

In looking at the video there are a couple angles of a girl on a swing. It could just be Vimeo, but the motion does not appear to be smooth. Do you recall what your shutter speed was set to? Also, do you have any observations on capturing motion with the camera? I'm aware that Panasonic have significantly reduced rolling shutter. Are there any trade-offs?

 

Thanks

[sandro]

Which retains the best details on GH4 for 1080p viewing?

1) Shooting in 4k and downsampling to 1080p in software

2) Shooting directly in 1080p from the camera

[Andrew Reid]

1.

[arya44]

Hi Andrew,

 

I just bought your GH4 Shooter's Guide. Did you include any link for downloading original footage for the people who buy your book? I imagine since there is no hard copy involved, it is good if the buyers feel they will be supported as some sort of electronic amendments as you have more things to say or show about this camera. I'm looking for a 4:2:2 original footage skin tone samples, lots of content with contrasts of dark areas and overly bright areas, low light footage, etc. without any grading so I can grade them myself and find the capability of 4:2:2 vs. 4:2:0 from the card. I haven't bought the external recorder yet but I may. To be honest, I'm not happy with what I'm getting for the dynamic range and dark area colour information, or enough and proper information from overly bright areas. Also the noise is very evident in the low light situations. I am still learning and especially I haven't tried all the combinations of master pedestal and closing or opening the iris while in CineD mode or combining Cine and other modes with shadows/highlights. I expect you have put many more hours on trying these in GH4 and I get a boiled down version of the best combinations for the conditions I mentioned above, i.e. high contrast scenes: dark objects and overly bright content (naturally lit dark room with dark coloured objects with the view from the window on a sunny day), low light, skin tone in different scenarios, etc.

Someone was claiming to not use shadows/highlights curve with Cinelike D. What is your finding on that?

 

Thanks a lot.

[varicam]

Make absolutely certain that iDynamic is off. I have been able to shoot in a dark church without distracting noise.

 

High contrast scenes are indeed quite difficult to deal with. But with enough fiddling, a nice image can be obtained.

 

I don't like CineD. No matter what I do, it just looks weird.